As a parachuting teen in the new 60s I was keen on having my gear function. Like everyone, I had two-shot capewell canopy releases. Just pull down the cover, squeeze dinky two buttons together, and your canopy would release sometimes. 2-shots purpose was to allow downed air crew the option of cutting away a canopy after an emergency over windy terrain. The GSA having determined that getting dragged across Tera firma to death after surviving a bail-out was counter productive and messy, added 2-shots as a back up canopy release to the hook knife and chaff in riser pockets. - Me, being serious about function, pounds 2-ten-penny nails in a tree limb as a coat-hook for my risers. Saddled in. I mime a mal + cut-a-way which would drop me on my ass. No release. No drop. So, an engineering sort, I polish and file the release tabs. More failures albeit smoother. Whilst one side cut away the other didn't. Counting out-loud (i'm a student) ONE-THOUSAND: TWO THOUSAND: etc. etc. I'd get to big numbers before I'd get release. On one side, if any. That concern resolved, I determined that circular 28' C9 flat canopies did not warrant a cut-away noway and proceeded down the yellow brick road to Emerald City.

Years thereafter the introduction of the PC was joined at the hip by nasty spinning Hi-G malfunctions. Then there, in those days of "Reserve Pilot-Chute Removed for Sport Parachuting" shot-and-one-half capewells functioned better than the no-cutaway boogie dance of, "PULL! PUNCH! THROW IN DIRECTION OF SPIN! SHAKE LINES: ASSIST OPENING. . . " ... hope for trees.

Having about 15 cut aways on shot+1/2 and 25 -30 more on 3-rings has reinforced my confidence that sport reserve parachutes work well. Howsomeever, methinks that the USAF still uses shot+1/2s.... this is cool cauz they got no reserve. .... do they still jump rounds? Hope not.

The main reson for the capewell alos was to make the rigs inter-changable . The lines were sewn to the risers the main lift web became the risers etc . If you had a bad canopy but good harness pitch it all . If the rig was bad and a good canopy again pitch it all. Capewell was the name of the company that made the adapters. some Navy rigs only had them on one side to collapse the canopy if being drug in sea water. The 26 foot Navy reserve had sea pockets to help slow down the dragging process.

The one shot capewell was mostly on the early crossbow pig rigs . while nice in concept they never really oneshotted. You could pull the covers down then smackthem both at the same time to be gone. That rig had the first RSL in 1964 but you had the make sure you released the right side slightly before the left as ther were no cross cpnnectors between risers. Obviously they worked for me many times with the ropes and rings Paraplane clouds

Perhaps I mis-spoke....I did not mean to imply that the C9 was used EXCLUSIVELY...only that it is still in use. By the way, what canopy is in that square-look-alike? I find it hard to believe it is a square.

It was originally developed by a company out of the Phoenix area called Simula. I am very familiar with it…..I was involved in the testing both for the Navy and for the TSO. I did all the live jumps on it for the TSO. Here is some more shit on it.

Quite a display of various ways to release canopies. All employ the concept of leverage or other mechanical advantage to decrease the tension on the actual release point beginning with modifications of the capewll system, then to webbing arangements. This can be viewed as the evolutionary path to the 3-ring releases that are seen on virtually all modern sport rigs.

Quite a display of various ways to release canopies. All employ the concept of leverage or other mechanical advantage to decrease the tension on the actual release point beginning with modifications of the capewll system, then to webbing arangements. This can be viewed as the evolutionary path to the 3-ring releases that are seen on virtually all modern sport rigs.

Fascinating and educational.

Except many of them evolved after the 3-ring system was already on the market.

It was originally developed out of a company in Asheville NC, SEI or Safety Equipment International. I worked there directly with the Navy test jumpers and Engineers out of China Lake, CA to develop the packing and sealing processes of the P3 and E2C parachutes.

The Navy has since taken control of all the drawings, which is why SEI, bought and moved to Phoenix, renamed Simula, then bought by Armor Holdings, then finally sold to BAE Systems no longer manufacture them. They called it the Durachute and did not have much demand for their civilian version.

And yes, it had a Five year repack cycle due to the vacuum sealing process.

It was originally developed out of a company in Asheville NC, SEI or Safety Equipment International. I worked there directly with the Navy test jumpers and Engineers out of China Lake, CA to develop the packing and sealing processes of the P3 and E2C parachutes.

The Navy has since taken control of all the drawings, which is why SEI, bought and moved to Phoenix, renamed Simula, then bought by Armor Holdings, then finally sold to BAE Systems no longer manufacture them. They called it the Durachute and did not have much demand for their civilian version.

And yes, it had a Five year repack cycle due to the vacuum sealing process.

It was developed by Simula a company in Apache Junction just outside of Phoenix. SEI is a division of Simula. AERO a company owned by Joe Crotwell was involved in the testing of the base unit testing and also the P-3 and E2-C versions. If you were working with the guys at China Lake you will remember the King Air used in testing. That was AERO,s plane. At time I was director of air drops with AERO.

Sparky

The guy in the gray jumpsuit is the Simula rigger who was responsible for most of the design work.

Okay...a little of my background with SEI. I worked at SEI in Asheville,NC from 2000-2003. I worked with 3 designers and several individuals who jumped and did R&D with the P3 prior to my arrival there. At the time, SEI was not owned by anyone else. It was purchased by Simula while I was there. Simula opted to close the Asheville site in 2003 and moved it to Apache Junction, AZ. I still keep in touch with several of the navy test jumpers that jumped, Gabbard, Mark Esposito and Howie Tomlinson. Tomlinson still works at China Lake with the 2 vacuum sealed systems the Navy developed with the company I worked for. I never made a trip to do the test drops, that was prior to me arriving. I assembled, packed, vacuumed sealed, and closed the systems before shipping to the navy. I just wanted to add a little bit more of the history of the Durachute, not to stir up any animosity.

Okay...a little of my background with SEI. I worked at SEI in Asheville,NC from 2000-2003. I worked with 3 designers and several individuals who jumped and did R&D with the P3 prior to my arrival there. At the time, SEI was not owned by anyone else. It was purchased by Simula while I was there. Simula opted to close the Asheville site in 2003 and moved it to Apache Junction, AZ. I still keep in touch with several of the navy test jumpers that jumped, Gabbard, Mark Esposito and Howie Tomlinson. Tomlinson still works at China Lake with the 2 vacuum sealed systems the Navy developed with the company I worked for. I never made a trip to do the test drops, that was prior to me arriving. I assembled, packed, vacuumed sealed, and closed the systems before shipping to the navy. I just wanted to add a little bit more of the history of the Durachute, not to stir up any animosity.

I had heard that, but only took it witha grain of salt. There was also an guy there that married, divorced, married again and divorced again the same woman. Must of been something in the water in the mountians of western NC...

The one shot capewell was mostly on the early crossbow pig rigs . while nice in concept they never really oneshotted. You could pull the covers down then smackthem both at the same time to be gone. That rig had the first RSL in 1964 but you had the make sure you released the right side slightly before the left as ther were no cross cpnnectors between risers. Obviously they worked for me many times with the ropes and rings Paraplane clouds

I jumped (and used) One-Shots after I got off student status. Mine certainly didn't work that way... Just pull the cover all the way down and you were gone. I did 2 intentional (practice) cutaways and one from an actual mal with them and they always worked perfectly (and way faster than 1.5 shots). There were some who said you should pull them down to the cocked (half open) position and then slap them to the harness, but it just was not necessary.